“She’s the writer and I'm the agent.” She pointed at me then herself.
“Well, beautiful ladies, follow me.”
I reached for my phone and opened an app to take notes.
“I'm excited Kassia, hot sweaty SWAT men.” She grinned. I took my hand away from hers and started to take notes.
Gab showed us the training ground and the firing range, plus he spoke to me about certain training techniques they used. The bomb squad area was off limits, but that was fine, just being there was making my writer’s block disappear.
“Is this helping you?” he asked me.
“Yes, it is actually. Just tell me as much as you can.”
He took us to another training area, which had free weights and machines. To the far end there was boxing gear and mats for grappling.
“It’s here where we train for our fit physiques.” He smiled and winked. Why did I get the feeling this was more for Tiff’s benefit than for mine?
I saw a few men laughing as they trained close by, taking each other down.
“If you ladies wouldn’t mind, we have food ready. See a few of us cook while we wait around. So would you care to join us?” Yeah! That wasn’t for us, that was most definitely for Tiff. I looked around, leaving Tiff alone with Officer Gab and decided to see what kind of grappling the men were doing.
I watched as two men were on the ground, fighting each other. One finally got on top. He took his opponent’s arm and rolled back, pulling the arm with him. The man on the ground then tapped out quickly.
“Yeah! Woohoo!” The men around cried out.
“Go, Jason, you’re da man.” ‘Jason.’ He stood up and pulled on his shirt.
“Fuck me!” I said under my breath, perhaps not low enough. The two men who stood ahead of me turned around and looked right at me.
I could see Jason dodging his head to see who spoke. I nodded quickly to the men in front of me and moved as fast as my two little feet could carry me. Once I reached Tiff, I tugged at her arm.
“I’ve seen enough and I need to go home and write. I'm completely inspired. I'm sure I could write like forty pages, if not more, tonight.” I pulled on her to move.
“But Gab asked us to stay,” she laughed.
“No Tiff!” I almost screamed, but kept it under a hushed voice.
“What’s your problem?” she asked. Fuck, she so wasn’t getting it.
I turned my back to not face the men on the other side and looked squarely into her face.
“I NEED TO GO,” I enunciated each word and willed her to understand.
“O...K… Well, I'm so sorry Gab, but we’ll take a rain check for next time. Thanks again for your help with everything.” She was trying to make a very professional goodbye, but my tugging at her arm made us both look utterly ridiculous. I would have made it too, had it not been for her slow reaction.
A large man, who was leaning up against the doorframe, with his arms crossed, intercepted me.
“Fuckin’ Jason,” I exhaled. “If you don’t mind, we’d like to get through,” I said, not bothering to look at him.
“I heard that Gab offered you ladies a meal. Why not join us?” he asked, almost making it sound like we were being rude.
“Well, I'm a writer you see and I’ve been inspired. And I need to get home to write. So, if you would excuse us.” I tried to move round him, but it didn’t work.
“One meal, that’s all I'm asking. Then you can go,” he whispered low as he looked down at me. Why did I have to look up and see his light grey eyes?
I sat next to Tiff, while she sat next to Gab laughing it up. Judas! I thought. I looked down at my plate. It was lasagna, which was my favorite.
I waited until everyone sat down. Interestingly enough, no one sat down next to me. Oh, well, whatever, I thought as I dug into my meal.
“So I hear you’re a writer,” one of the men asked me.
“Yeah, I write a few books, no big deal.” I smiled politely.
“Anything we may have heard of?” asked another guy from across the table.
“I don’t think so. I'm not that big of a writer,” I offered.
I finally realized why the seat next to me was vacant. Jason had shown up and sat down next to me. Talk about the brotherhood and sticking together.
“She’s just being modest. Kassia doesn’t like talking about her work,” Tiff spoke up. “Any of you guys heard of The Sword and The Dance or Vampire High, maybe The Mythicals?” She started to roll out my titles. I pulled on her arm, telling her to stop.
“Aren’t those TV shows on cable networks?” the guy across from me asked. I began to squirm in my seat.
“Yeah, those are all hers,” Tiff said proudly.